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Plummeting Black Templar Thunderhawk Pilot





Equestria/USA

For Space Marine tactical squads they are shown having the arrow pointing up on one of their pauldrons. For some squads it is shown pointing to the right, or other direction. My question is, what is the difference, if any?

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/07/23 23:30:58


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Chapter choice; either one works. It originally used to be (back in the olden days) that the Codex Astartes dictated it was an arrow pointing up, IIRC Dark Angels had the <--> arrow so they would look unique, but it's irrelevant now and it seems that all Chapters could have either one. Although I'd suggest picking one and sticking with it for your chapter

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In one of the SM codexes or maybe the Insignium Astartes it states that you should mix up the style in your squad so the enemy will have a tougher time understanding which units are which. It gives you a lot more modelling options per mini while still retaining an authentic paint job.

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Back in the day, an up-pointing arrow was the marker for troops choices:



And tactical squads had up-pointing arrows because they were troops choices.

Then someone got confused and started modelling arrows going any which way because apparently all space marines became 1/8th's chaos, instead of strictly adhering to how things were supposed to go.

You'll actually notice this pattern if you do a little searching as well:

http://www.40kglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/whirlwind.jpg

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120815025710/warhammer40k/images/3/3a/LandSpeederTempest06.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XcUa9t45x9k/T2X68VMktgI/AAAAAAAAB3Q/SohxZIWjTH4/s1600/Silver+skulls+land+speeder+1d+wildhostblogspot.com.JPG

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-38lmFR4YHrE/TPO151VdMKI/AAAAAAAAAIg/Sk0Y7BrZj2A/s1600/dred.jpg

You'll notice that elites like dreads and terminators have the cross, FA like land speeders have the X and HS choices have the chevron.


This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/07/24 02:04:26


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The variant squad markings date back to at least late 1998 with the 3rd edition Codex Space Marines.

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 Ailaros wrote:
Back in the day, an up-pointing arrow was the marker for troops choices:



And tactical squads had up-pointing arrows because they were troops choices.

You have that backwards.

The standard Codex squad markings considerably pre-date the Force Org Chart. When the FOC was introduced in 3rd edition, they simply used the Marine markings on it.


Some Chapters have always had variations on that (Dark Angels, for example, use the two-ended, sideways arrow for Tacticals) and other variants for Codex chapters were introduced in the codexes and painting guides over the years to allow people a little more freedom with their painting choices.

 
   
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Some RT markings. Tactical squads are the two headed arrow (they go both ways), Assault was crossed, Devastators are the sunburst/explosion. I’m not sure when the single, upward pointing arrow came to be tactical. It might have been 3rd, but could have been second, I’d have to dig for an answer.

   
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 Nevelon wrote:
I’m not sure when the single, upward pointing arrow came to be tactical. It might have been 3rd, but could have been second, I’d have to dig for an answer.


Ultramarines have been using the upward arrow on their Mk7 marines since WD129 about halfway through RT, IIRC almost all of the alternative chapters shown in the painting guide that came with the 2nd edition game box had the same arrow. It was certainly the standard by Codex: Ultramarines (very little has changed since then).

 
   
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The C:SM has this in both the Codex Heraldry and Vehicle Markings sections.
But, that's for UltraMarines, and other chapters have their own symbols.

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